Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Native Speaker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Multiculturalism
Silence, Language, and Communication
Racism and Xenophobia
Love, Loss, and Moving On
Summary
Analysis
Henry’s father died a year and a half after Mitt’s death. He was a serious man who wouldn’t have understood the kind of vacation Lelia took in Italy. The point of life for him was to work hard and steadily rise through society, and his only beliefs revolved around the power of Jesus Christ and capitalism. When he had his first stroke, Henry and Lelia moved in to care for him. A week later, he had a second stroke that made it impossible for him to speak. Henry took advantage of his silence and his inability to do anything but listen. He sat up late with his father and spoke nonstop—part of it was a form of personal confession, but another part was intended as a kind of “emotional torture.”
Henry clearly resents his father, though it’s not yet clear why. All the same, the fact that he seized the opportunity to speak nonstop to his father as a form of “emotional torture” suggests that he wanted to get back at the old man for something. At the same time, though, it also indicates that he was eager to express himself. To that end, Henry has a tendency to open up in situations in which there’s no chance that his words will be used against him, as evidenced by the way he also spoke freely in therapy sessions with Luzan.
Themes
But nothing Henry said to his father could really hurt him, since his father knew that he had done exactly what he intended to do in life. He’d raised Henry in a foreign country, become a successful businessman, and would even have had enough money to help Mitt have a good life. In short, he made it possible for Henry to avoid the hardships he himself faced. And yet, Henry’s father wasn’t successful because of some kind of natural talent or cleverness. Rather, he was successful because he “refused to fail.”
The novel explores the work ethic Henry’s father clung to as he fought to sustain himself in a foreign country. He appears to have believed that failure simply wasn’t an option, which makes sense, considering that he and his wife came all the way from Korea to live in the United States—having made such an effort, Henry’s father “refused to fail.” The novel implies that this is a rather common attitude for immigrants to embrace, since many people leave their homes for the exact purpose of gaining new opportunities to work hard.
Themes
Henry’s father got his start in business through something known as a ggeh, which is a Korean “money club.” Members of a ggeh all contribute to a big pool of cash, and at some point each of them will get to take the money for themselves. The members pay into the ggeh each week with the knowledge that they will eventually be the ones to benefit from this collective effort. The members of Henry’s father’s ggeh were a tightknit bunch of humble businessmen whose families spent time together in public parks. His father used the money to open a green grocery store that became quite successful. But as everyone in the ggeh slowly earned more and more money, they grew apart, and they stopped spending so much time together.
Henry’s father got his start as a businessowner in the United States by engaging with the immigrant community in New York City, ultimately using a Korean tradition to finance his pursuit of the so-called “American Dream.” In this way, he benefited from the intersection of two cultures. And yet, the novel implies that it's easy to get wrapped up in American society, especially after gaining some success. After all, the Korean Americans in Henry’s father’s ggeh end up drifting apart once they make money and achieve their original goals, indicating that it can be hard to stay connected to one’s own cultural roots while living in another country.
Themes
Eventually, Henry’s father moved the family to a wealthy neighborhood in Ardsley, New York. He commuted into the city to oversee his multiple grocery stores, and Henry suspects that his father never felt completely comfortable in his own posh neighborhood in Ardsley, which was full of white families. His mother also seemed to want to fly under the radar, never wanting to borrow anything from their neighbors or ask anything of anyone. Henry didn’t understand why this was the case, bemoaning the fact that his mother seemed so afraid of what people thought of them.
Henry’s parents came to the United States for opportunity, but Henry suspects that their success came at a certain cost. At first, his father was very connected to a tightknit group of other Korean immigrants, but his eventual success as a businessowner seems to have catapulted him (and the rest of the family) into a very different lifestyle—one in which everyone around him is white and unknowledgeable about Korean culture. There are, of course, different ways to respond to this transition, and Henry’s mother chose to simply mind her own business as a way of blending in. Henry, however, was just a child, so the idea of downplaying his personality seemed strange.
Themes
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During his childhood and adolescence, Henry worked at his father’s grocery stores. The ones in affluent neighbors on the Upper East Side of Manhattan were full of white women who hardly even seemed to see him. These women would even make racist comments right in front of him, assuming he couldn’t speak English. Once, a wealthy older woman picked up an apple, took a bite, and then put it back. Henry started toward her, but his father stopped him, telling him in Korean that she was a frequent costumer.
When the old woman makes a racist comment in front of Henry, he’s forced to confront the fact that many white people have no respect for him or his family. His father is a fairly successful businessowner, and this white woman patronizes his grocery store, but that unfortunately doesn’t do anything to combat her racist worldview. And yet, Henry’s father is primarily concentrated on never losing his customers, thus implying that he sees this kind of bigotry and mistreatment as the cost of doing business in the United States.
Themes
Henry’s father was strict with his employees, but he refused to run things any other way. Dealing with this kind of strictness himself, he claimed, was how he learned business, and it would be how his employees would learn business, too. When he came home, Henry’s mother wouldn’t ask him about work—she would just comment that he must be hungry because he worked so late and so hard.
Henry’s father is an incredibly hard-working, disciplined man. As a result, he has high expectations of his employees, and it’s implied that he holds Henry to the same standards. At the same time, though, he seems to want to keep his work life separate from his home life, at least according to Henry’s mother, who makes a point of never asking about his day. In turn, a certain silence hovers around his life as a businessowner, as if it would be crass to talk about such things at home.
Themes
One night, Henry decided to ask his father about how things were going at the stores, but his mother quickly pulled him to the side and asked why he was bothering his father with that kind of talk. His father, she told him, earned a degree from the best college in Korea, and the only reason he worked as a grocer was to give his son a better life—talking about it at home, though, would only “shame” him.
Henry’s mother sheds light on why she or his father never talk about work. Henry’s father made a great sacrifice by leaving behind his life in Korea, where he was seen as a distinguished person who was highly qualified for nearly any kind of work. In the United States, though, none of this mattered. Nonetheless, he still made something of himself by becoming a successful businessowner. His success, though, doesn’t change the fact that he thinks his work as a grocer is beneath him. This dynamic illustrates the economic and cultural difficulties of moving from one country to another, which often means giving up social status in the name of gaining new economic opportunities.
Themes
Henry’s father didn’t know what Henry did for work, but he didn’t seem to disapprove of his lifestyle. To Henry’s surprise, he legitimately liked Lelia, and Henry began to suspect that his father was pleased he’d married a white woman—his father seemed to think Lelia would make it easier for Henry to succeed in the United States. But it was always hard to tell what, exactly, he thought. He was not a talkative man. Henry was 10 when his mother died, and his father took the tragedy in stride without saying much. He went on with life, and to this day Henry has no idea whether or not his father suffered internally from this loss.
Henry has been raised to keep his emotions to himself, since this is exactly what his father did. When Henry’s mother died, his father didn’t open up to his son or grieve alongside him—he simply moved on. His reaction ultimately emphasizes his highly practical, unsentimental attitude, which is the same attitude that made him a successful businessowner in a foreign country. Similarly, the fact that he thinks Lelia will help Henry succeed in American society underscores his pragmatic approach to life, suggesting that he tends to think more about success and prosperity than love and emotions.
Themes
